Islam – Myths and Facts

“The Prophet Muhammad was not a warrior, but he found himself, like many of the Axial Age sages, in a violent society and he eventually brought peace to the region by practicing a daring policy of non-violence. He stopped the violence and went into Mecca unarmed and forced the Meccan to negotiate with him accepting terms that his followers thought were disgraceful,” – Karen Armstrong.

Last June German journalist, Andrea Bistrich interviewed Karen Armstrong, a former Nun and one of the greatest authorities on the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In her interview, Karen Aemstrong exposed Zionists’ lies about Islam and Muslims. Below are some of the highlights from her interview:

Violence: There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur’an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a western fiction, fabricated during the time of Crusades when, it fact, it were western Christians, who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam. The Qur’an forbids aggressive warfare and permits war only in self-defence; the moment the enemy sues for peace, the Qur’an insists that Muslims must lay down their arms and accept whatever terms are offered, even if they are disadvantageous. Later, Muslim law forbade Muslims to attack a country where Muslims were allowed to practice their faith freely; the killing of civilian was prohibited, as were the destruction of property and use of fire in the warfare.

Islam was always a religion of success, going from one truimph to another, but Muslims (since they stopped practicing the true teachings of Islam) have been able to make no headway against the secular West.

Clash of Civilization: The divisions in our world are not the result of religion or culture, but are politically based. There is an inbalance of power in the world, and the powerless are begining to challenge the hegemony of the great power, declaring their independence of them – often using religious language to do so. In the Muslim world people are defining themselves according to their religion in an attempt to return to their roots after the great colonialist distruption.

Secularism and religious fundamentalism: Religious fundamentalism is a revolt against secularism. Jewish, Christian and Islamic fundamenralists – are all convinced that secular or liberal wants to corrupt wipe out their religions. Among the three Abrahamic religions – Judasim, Christianity and Islam – Islam was the last to develop a fundamentalist strain during the 1960s. American Christian fundamentalists (neo-cons) are not in favour of democracy.

Zionist-Arab conflict: It’s purely a secular conflict based on land grab. Zionism began as a rebellion against religious Judaismand at the outset most Orthodox Rabbis condemned Zionism as a blasphemous secularization of the land of Israel. Similarly, the ideology of PLO was secular. Unless a just polical solution can be found that is satisfactory to everyone, there is no hope for peace.

For many Muslims the plight of Palestinian represents everything that is wrong with the modern world. the fact that, in 1948, 750,000 Palestinian could loose their homes with apparent approval of the world symbolizes the impotence of Muslim world vis-a-vis the West.

Jewish occupation of Palestine has also become pivotal to Christian fundamentalists in the United States. The Christian Right believe that unless the Jews are in their land, fulfilling the ancient prophecies (distorted by Zionist sponsored Scofield Bible) – Christ cannot return in glory in the Second Coming. So they are passionate Zionists; but this idealogy is also anti-Jewish – because in the Last Days, they believe that Christ will massacre Jews in the Holy Land if they do not accet Baptism (convert to Christianity).

In the Balfour Declaration (1917), Britain approved of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and ignored the aspirations and plight of native Palestinian Muslims and Christians. And today the US supports Israel economically and politically and also tends to ignore the plight of Palestinians. This is dangerous, because Palestinians (over nine million) are not going to go away.

Allah and God of Judaism and Christianity: Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God. None of the followers of these three Abrahamic faith – is superior (The Chosen People) to any of the other. However, Jews have always found it difficult to accept the other two faiths – Christianity and Islam. Christianity has always had an uneasy relationship with Judaism, the parent faith – and has seen Islam as a blasphemous imitation of revelation. The Qur’an, however, has a possitive view of both Judaism and Christianity and constantly asserts that Muhammad (pbuh) did not come to cancel out the faiths of ‘the people of the book'; you cannot be a Muslim unless you also revere the prophet Abraham, David, Noah, Moses and Jesus – whom Muslim regard as a great prophet (Jewish Talmud, however, calls Jesus a product of adultery, sic). Gospel of Luke also calls Jesus ‘a prophet’. The idea that Jesus was ‘divine’, was a later development, often misunderstood by Christians.